COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the fourth time, the Ohio Supreme Court shot down the legislative maps adopted by the Ohio Redistricting Commission.
The 4-3 decision saw Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican, siding with the three Democratic justices.
The commission adopted its fourth plan, considered its “third revised plan” by the court, March 28. The court claimed the plan unfairly favored the GOP.
The court said the maps favored the GOP in at least 54 of 99 House districts and 18 Senate districts, adding the number of competitive districts was completely one-sided against Democrats.
The commission, which is made of majority Republican members, decided to ditch the proposals the hired mapmakers created and instead chose to submit altered versions of maps previously rejected by the court.
In the court’s opinion, it wrote the “commission should retain an independent map drawer—who answers to all commission members, not only to the Republican legislative leaders—to draft a plan through a transparent process. We also said that ‘the drafting should occur in public and the commissioners should convene frequent meetings to demonstrate their bipartisan efforts to reach a constitutional plan within the time set by this court.’”
On April 1, petitioners filed objections to the third revised plan, primarily criticizing the commission’s process in adopting the third revised plan and arguing that the plan violates Article XI, Sections 6(A) and 6(B).6 of the Ohio Constitution.
The court gave the commission until May 6 at 9 a.m. to submit a fifth plan to the secretary of state’s office and to the court on the same day by noon.
